AudioRevolution.com
has learned from a reliable source that Warner Music (WEA) plans to
forge ahead with a DVD-Audio/CD “flip disc” without approval from the
DVD Forum. Without approval, the disc might not be able to be called a
“DVD” but will play in every DVD-Audio, DVD-Video player, Xbox and
Playstation 2, as well as in every CD player currently installed in
consumers’ homes and cars.
The new disc will compete
with the “Hybrid” SACD which can be played on all CD players, as well
as in high-resolution SACD players in both stereo and surround sound.
Hybrid SACD is an approved and commercially successful format that is
already being distributed by the SACD camp for artists like Bob Dylan,
Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones. Hybrid SACD, unlike a DVD, cannot
easily synch to video, which limits the added value possibilities on
the format. Hybrid SACDs are also not backwards-compatible in surround
sound to over ...

DTS
will be releasing a 5.1 surround sound transmission of a live concert
by David Bowie, from the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, to cinemas
across Europe and North America.
Broadcast live in
5.1-channel DTS 96/24 digital surround sound on September 8 in London,
Paris, Munich and Zurich and re-broadcast on
September 15 in the US and Canada, the event will demonstrate DTS' end-to-end solution for alternative E-cinema programming.
DTS will be encoding the multi-channel audio feed at the concert venue,
using its CAE-5 professional broadcast encoder. The DTS encoded signal
will be fed to TANDBERG MPEG2 encoding equipment for global satellite
delivery coordinated by live cinema events organizer Quantum Digital.
The signal received at the designated cinema sites, using TANDBERG
Integrated Receiver Decoder devices, will be fed to DTS' new XD10
Digital Cinema Media player, which will output the 96kHz 24 bit-quality
surround sound audio.

Backwards
compatibility of the new audio formats has been a highly sought-after
feature in the ongoing new audio format war. DVD-Audio discs are
backwards compatible via the default tracks, which can be Dolby
Digital, DTS Surround, or something like DTS 24-96 stereo tracks. Pure
DSD SACDs are not very compatible with anything other than dedicated
SACD players, but the increasingly popular hybrid SACDs (for example,
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and the Rolling Stones SACDs) have
an actual Red Book CD layer that makes the hybrid SACD actually play
back on hundreds of millions of compact disc players located in music
systems, home theaters, Walkmen, car audio systems and beyond. This has
resulted in a good first week for Dark Side on SACD, which consultants
for Sony say sold over 20,000 copies in its first week. Some reports
have the numerous Rolling Stone SACD hybrid titles selling over
1,000,000 copies total. In ...

The
topic of hybrid discs is a hot one in the music business all of a
sudden. Hybrid SACD discs which are currently available on a limited
number of releases (Rolling Stones Titles for example) allow a level of
backwards compatibility with over 500,000,000 existing Compact Disc
players. The DVD-Audio camp is now hot on the trail with a hybrid discs
of their own and according to online publication
highfideillityreview.com Sona Press (a company owned by BMG) now has a
working model of the hybrid DVD disc.
The significance of
both the SACD and DVD-Audio hybrid projects is that they appeal to a
mainstream audience because of their backwards compatibility. Record
labels have become quickly interested in hybrid discs because of their
ability to better protect their copywritten material on a consumer
music format that also offers more performance and value than the aging
and easily bootlegged CD.

This Saturday, I stopped by my local Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to do a little Christmas shopping for myself with the hopes of coming home with some new SACD and DVD-Audio titles. More depressing than the weak selection of SACD and DVD-Audio titles was the reaction I got from the manager when I politely pointed out to him that there were DVD-Video titles in the DVD-Audio section. After a laborious and highly technical explanation of the differences between the two formats and why the DVD-Video titles would be better displayed separately or in the music oriented DVD-Video section – he responded “if it plays in a DVD player then it is DVD-Audio.” That scared me.